Twittergem: Unimpressed by Arcade Fire

Arcade Fire do Bruce Spingsteen:

Watch Arcade Fire's Win Butler cover Bruce Springsteen's 'Born In The USA' at US election concert https://t.co/5nfSYUevLi pic.twitter.com/Fz9xdpiMVp

— NME (@NME) November 7, 2016

Not everyone is impressed:

@NME snore...

— graham coxon (@grahamcoxon) November 7, 2016

The helpful reviewers of Amazon: Slap them, they're talking French

Perhaps persuaded by their Glastonbury performance, you might be thinking of buying Reflektor. Thank god Fleece Fire can stop you before you waste your £4:

The lead 'singer' can't hold a note to save his life. And they keep chucking in French just to, y'know, be arty (aka pretentious). Nothing is catchy and the lyrics are too serious. Lighten up guys! Oh, and they just had to have an album cover based on a famous sculpture because they couldn't think of any original ideas on how to express themselves.

Canada isn't too great at giving us great bands. Celine Dion, Avril Lavigne, Justin Bieber, Nickleback. It's all terrible.

Avoid like the absolute plague unless you're partial to having the musical equivalent of icepicks stabbing you in the ears for 75 long, LONG minutes.

- Hey, Regine, what shall we put on the sleeve?
- Hmm. Fresh out of ideas, Win. Let's just go and get a postcard from the gallery and lob that on

What I think is most acute about Fleece's insight is that they know the band are Canadian, but don't seem to know that 'speaking French' is a thing that many Canadians do habitually, not pretentiously.

Glastonbury 2014: View from the sofa

"We're not going to go on about it" reassure Mark Radcliffe and Jo Whiley, leading off the late night live chunk of Glastonbury coverage on BBC Two.

But they do, of course.

And then when they hand over to Lauren Laverne in another part of the field, she can't help but talk about it, too.

And why wouldn't they? This year, clearly, isn't the Glastonbury of Metallica; it's the Glastonbury where the lights went out.

Trouble is, although Lauren had rather a good anecdote - about being chided for asking the bear-slaughterers if they'd bought the heavy metal thunder with them - the stuff that was most interesting about the power outage wasn't touched on.

(Incidentally, it wouldn't be Metallica's heavy metal thunder; Dolly Parton has brought a rainbow with her, and we all know what you have to endure to get one of those working.)

Normally, the BBC's Glastonbury coverage is padded with films of people who've paid silly money for tickets doing really dull things - giving us a taste of the "festival experience". This year, when it'd actually be really interesting to know what it was like to be in a city of tens of thousands of people when the electricity stopped being in the wires and was just in the sky - nothing.

Apart from Mark Radcliffe saying something about communal singing in a tattoo tent, there was no answer to the question 'what was it like on the site?'

Instead, the crisis was reduced to a short snatch of footage of Rudimental walking off the stage.

The big disappointment this year is the red button coverage - clearly all the love has been poured into the website. Three channels of music, more or less lobbed on screen; with whatever happens to be on TV given (it appears) a free pass.

So, at one point, you could have watched Elbow on BBC Three, or something else on BBC Two. If those options didn't delight you, you could press red to get three more bands - except one was Elbow and one was BBC Two.

What's the point of pushing the stream that's already on TV through the red button service?

And doing it so badly - for a good ten minutes, the "BBC Two" Glastonbury feed was so locked in to simulcasting BBC Two that it pushed out a great chunk of Newsnight. (If Jean-Claude Juncker was actually being inducted in the cabaret tent, my apologies to the red button team.)

I suppose it's fair to say that it's more surprising that there's a red button at all - with SmartTVs and Chromecasts and whatnot, it's easier than ever to get the rather good bbc.co.uk experience onto your TV.

(Slight grumble here - the Glastonbury content from iPlayer doesn't show up on the iPhone version of iPlayer, which makes it harder to enjoy on a TV. I know this is a bit like complaining that the handle on the cup the ambrosia comes in is a little fiddly to hold, but... worth mentioning.)

So, what of the bands themselves?

Arcade Fire, it's clear, have edged ever closer to vanishing over the Bono Horizon.

I know, I know...

... how can I possibly think that?

You know when the fireworks (literal fireworks) are at the start, not the end, of the set, that you're watching a band who are overdoing the spectacle.

Men made out of mirrors; the bobbleheads; two-faced skeletons (one of whom, distractingly, had a brand name of a morphsuit maker on his ass); a stage full of around thirty people at one; racoon make-up; pyrotechnics... it's just so fucking tiring to watch, and it's dressing up music that doesn't really need all this extra packing. You've written songs that are packed full of strong, striking images - why are you hiding them in the worst circus ever?

Elsewhere, Blondie were a little ragged around the edges - doing the high bit from Rapture would be difficult under normal circumstances, but Harry just-about nailed it on a stage, early in the day, outdoors. And the cover of (You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party) was a delight - especially watching the ripple of 'oh! this is what this is!' run through the crowd at different speeds.

Sidenote: After last year's fuss about whether jokes about the Rolling Stones being old were okay, it's worth mentioning that Debbie Harry is 69 on Tuesday. But people don't obsess over it because jokes about Blondie being old were never a thing.

Also because she'd kick your butt.

Chvrches were great; and Drenge are still on course to become Mudhoney by the end of next year.

Listen with No Rock: Tears For Fears

Tears For Fears covering Arcade Fire, anybody? Here you go:

The Fears (or "The Fears" as nobody calls them) explained why they've done this:

"Having appreciated artists like Kanye West, Katy Perry, Kimbra, Nas, Gary Jules/Michael Andrews, Adam Lambert & Dizzee Rascal covering & sampling our songs over the past years, we agreed that some reciprocal cross-generational love was in order. We decided to give Arcade Fire a twist of TFF. Enjoy."

You've got to tip your hat to Curt and Roland - only they could over-intellectualise 'doing a cover version'.

Polaris Music Prize: The Shortlist

CBC has got the shortlist for Canada's Polaris Music Prize:

Arcade Fire | The Suburbs
Austra | Feel It Break
Braids | Native Speaker
Destroyer | Kaputt
Galaxie | Tigre et diesel
Hey Rosetta! | Seeds
Ron Sexsmith | Long Player Late Bloomer
Colin Stetson | New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges
Timber Timbre | Creep On Creepin' On
The Weeknd | House Of Balloons

You'd normally say the Arcade Fire would be the one to beat, but given they've been given mainstream prizes south of the border, they might pay the price.

NME Awards 2011: More like the Brits than ever before

The NME Awards, sponsored by Johnson's No More Tears Baby Shampoo, were spat out last night. There were a lot of awards, too, creating the situation where there are now more NME awards winners than actual NME magazine readers.

Here's what won whomness:

Godlike Genius: Dave Grohl

Philip Hall Radar Award: The Naked And Famous

Teenage Cancer Trust Outstanding Contribution To Music: PJ Harvey

John Peel Award for Innovation: Crystal Castles

Best British Band (supported by Shockwaves)
Winners: Muse
Nominated: Arctic Monkeys, Biffy Clyro, Foals, Kasabian

Best International Band (supported by T4)
Winners: My Chemical Romance
Nominated: Arcade Fire, Kings Of Leon, The Drums, Vampire Weekend

Best Solo Artist
Winner: Laura Marling
Nominated: Florence Welch, Frank Turner, Kanye West, Paul Weller

Best New Band (supported by Boxfresh)
Winners: Hurts
Nominated: Beady Eye, Everything Everything, The Drums, Two Door Cinema Club

Best Live Band
Winners: Biffy Clyro
Nominated: Arcade Fire, Foals, Kasabian, Muse

Best Album
Winner: Arcade Fire – 'The Suburbs'
Nominated: Crystal Castles – 'Crystal Castles II', Foals – 'Total Life Forever', My Chemical Romance – 'Danger Days: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys', Two Door Cinema Club – 'Tourist History'

Best Track (supported by NME Radio)
Winner: Foals – 'Spanish Sahara'
Nominated: Cee Lo Green – 'Fuck You', Gorillaz – 'Stylo', Janelle Monae (featuring Big Boi) – 'Tightrope', Mark Ronson & The Business Intl. – 'Bang Bang Bang'

Best Video (supported by NME TV)
Winners: My Chemical Romance – 'Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)'
Nominated: Arcade Fire – 'We Used To Wait', Brandon Flowers – 'Crossfire', Chase & Status – 'Let You Go', Gorillaz – 'Stylo'

Best Festival
Winners: Glastonbury
Nominated: Download, Reading And Leeds Festivals, T In The Park, V Festival

Best Dancefloor Filler
Winners: Professor Green – 'Jungle'
Nominated: Crystal Castles – 'Baptism', Kele – 'Tenderoni', Plan B – 'Stay Too Long', Tinie Tempah – 'Pass Out'

Best TV Show
Winner: 'Skins'
Nominated: 'Misfits', 'Never Mind The Buzzcocks', 'Peep Show', 'The Inbetweeners'

Best Film
Winner: Inception
Nominated: Get Him To The Greek, Kick-Ass, Scott Pilgrim Vs The World, The Social Network

Hero Of The Year
Winner: Lady Gaga
Nominated: Gerard Way, Julian Assange, Kanye West

Villain Of The Year
Winners: David Cameron
Nominated: Axl Rose, Justin Bieber, Nick Clegg, Simon Cowell

Most Stylish (supported by Shockwaves)
Winner: Brandon Flowers
Nominated: Hayley Williams, Lady Gaga, Liam Gallagher, Noel Fielding

Least Stylish
Winnes: Justin Bieber
Nominated: Cheryl Cole, Ke$ha, Lady Gaga, Liam Gallagher

Worst Album
Winners: Justin Bieber – 'My World'
Nominated: Cheryl Cole – 'Messy Little Raindrops', Katy Perry – 'Teenage Dream', Kings Of Leon – 'Come Around Sundown', My Chemical Romance – 'Danger Days: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys'

Worst Band
Winners: Jonas Brothers
Nominated: 30 Seconds To Mars, JLS, Kings Of Leon, Tokio Hotel

Best Band Blog or Twitter
Winner: Hayley Williams
Nominated: Frank Turner, Kanye West, Lily Allen, Theo Hutchcraft

Best Book
Winner: John Lydon – 'Mr Rotten's Scrapbook'
Nominated: Carl Barat – 'Threepenny Memoir', Jay-Z – 'Decoded', Keith Richards – 'Life', Russell Brand – 'My Booky Wook 2'

Best Small Festival (50,000 capacity or lower)
Winners: RockNess
Nominated: Bestival, Kendal Calling, Latitude, Underage Festival

Best Album Artwork
Winner: Klaxons – 'Surfing The Void'
Nominated: Foals – 'Total Life Forever', Gorillaz – 'Plastic Beach', MGMT – 'Congratulations', My Chemical Romance – 'Danger Days: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys'

Hottest Woman
Winner: Alison Mosshart
Nominated: Emily Haines, Hayley Williams, Lady Gaga, Shakira

Hottest Man
Winners: Matt Bellamy
Nominated: Alex Turner, Billie Joe Armstrong, Dominic Howard, Jared Leto

Muse. Laura Marling. The Arcade Fire. The only real difference between the NME Awards and the Brits this year is the audience go "oh, them" rather than "who are they?"

But two prizes for My Chemical Romance? Blimey. Maybe next year they might want to think about trying making votes on a form cut from the magazine count double compared to an online vote. Or perhaps just give up and merge with Kerrang.

NME lives in a world where Brandon Flowers is the most stylish person on the entire planet. Let's just think on that for a moment.

Arcade Fire: I have never heard of them, therefore the fault must lie with them

Good work to whoever it was who started Who Is Arcade Fire, a collection of blinking tweets and puzzled Facebook statuses from people whose logic runs:

- I have not heard of the Arcade Fire (or the R K Fire, or The Suburbs)
- My music knowledge is unimpeachable
- Therefore, the Arcade Fire should not have won a Grammy.

Stuff like:

Album of the year goes to Arcadia Fire. WTF are they?

Slightly undermining these people's self-belief that there's no way they could have possibly have heard of this band is the awkward fact that The Suburbs was number one in the US last summer. Admittedly, the album before that only got to number two. I mean, how are you supposed to have heard of bands if they've only had number one albums?

Arcade Fire: singalong for charity

In another piece of nifty fundraising, The Arcade Fire have licensed Wake Up to the NFL. The NFL will get to use the song during the Superbowl; the resultant cash will go to help Haiti.

Not quite sure that yer average Sports Fan is really going to enjoy bellowing about how we grow up but our hearts get torn up. Perhaps the idea is to encourage sales of Budweiser by encouraging Americans to drown their sorrows.

Wayne Coyne still has a problem with The Arcade Fire

It's still a bit of a mystery why Wayne Coyne decided to have a go at The Arcade fire earlier in the year. And then why he offered a half-hearted apology. Now, though, he's half-assedly withdrawing the lame apology:

"It's so silly. People say things about The Flaming Lips all the time and I don't give a shit. For Arcade Fire to even think that what I would say would have any impact on their egos... it's all silly," says Coyne. "Who cares?"

Well... nobody, really, but Coyne then suddenly decides that people do care, and suggests there's an army of people disgruntled with Butlers who see Wayne as the only man brave enough to face them down:

"In my defence, I would say it was a casual conversation with the reporter. I don't care. I know what I said was absolutely the truth. I run into people virtually everywhere we play and they're like, 'Wayne, you're the only one that says anything'. I would say in their defence that perhaps they have changed. But I don't care. A lot of silly gossip gets built up into epic proportions. I can understand people who loved their music thinking I was out of line for saying it."

In his mind, at least, he's like the guy in V who first goes round spray painting over the alien posters.

Final Fantasy sign to Domino

More good news: Final Fantasy - near enough to an Arcade Fire spin-off as to make not much difference for our purposes here - have signed to Domino. Owen Pallett is promising an album early next year as a result.

Flaming flames Fire; Fire fans flames

Wayne Coyne, it turns out, isn't impressed with impressed with the Arcade Fire:

"We've played some shows with them and they really treat people like shit," he said. "Whenever I've been around them, I've found that they not only treated their crew like shit, they treated the audience like shit. They treated everybody in their vicinity like shit. I thought, 'Who do they think they are?'"

The Arcade Fire aren't taking that lying down, as if they were some sort of doormat. Not that they use doormats, they make a roadie get on the floor for that sort of thing. Win Butlers has slapped a blog up [in Flash, and impossible to link directly to] in which he suggest Wayne Coyne might not be the best person to judge if the band "are righteous, kind and goodhearted people like The Edge and Justin Timberlake" (of whom Coyne approves). Butlers concludes by suggesting that it might be slightly prick-like to tell Rolling Stone that "people [Coyne] doesn't know" are "arseholes".

Bet Chris Martin wishes he'd thought of that.

Canadians* for Obama

The Arcade Fire have announced two shows in support of Barack Obama's Presidential Campaign: Tomorrow and Monday night:

Arcade Fire will be playing a free concert on Sunday, March 2nd at Stuart's Opera House in Nelsonville, Ohio in support of Barack Obama's bid for the Democratic nomination. The show is at 7 p.m., first come first serve.They will also be playing a free show at the Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland on Monday, March 3rd. Doors are at 7 p.m., and the show is 18 and over, first come first serve.

* - We know; they're only sort-of-Canadian.

Best of updated

We've added some more highlights from best of lists across the internet; what's starting to come through as a trend is that despite an early release, The Arcade Fire's Neon Bible has held up remarkably well; The Good, The Bad & The Queen seems to have been largely forgotten over the last twelve months (or perhaps, simply didn't stand up to repeated listening) and - perhaps surprisingly - the Arctic Monkeys are finding critics cooling towards them. Bruce Springsteen, meanwhile, looks like being this year's comeback king.

The updating list of lists is on this page.

Not in Nottingham again: Arcade Fire bottled

Nottingham is unlikely to see a gig by the Arcade Fire in the future, after the band were hit by bottles during their Nottingham Arena show. Although it's possible Win Butler was hit by a shoe rather than a bottle, but the point remains the same.

More music mystery

As if all the excitement of the secret surprise coded Radiohead album announcement wasn't enough for a week, we're now being asked to keep our eyes on beonlineb, where The Arcade Fire are promising an announcement which will either surprise us so much we'll never be able to wear socks again, or will just be some sort of remix project. 6th October is when we find out...

LCD Fire

We do love split records, and are delighted that in this age of downloady-digitilisation there are still bands willing to team up to do them.

Bands like LCD Soundsystem and Arcade Fire, who are coming together for an ass-to-ass 7". The LCDs will be doing Joy Division's No Love Lost while the Fire puts out Serge Gainsbourg's Poupee de Cire, Poupee De Son.

Heh heh... he said 'poopy'. Heh heh.

The thing will be available during the band's joint US tour, and on "various websites". Of which eBay will be just one, we suspect.

Something to listen to: Radio stuff

These are all BBC Radio Listen again links, so will decay a week after original TX:

Jon Ronson On... goes to Glastonbury, and asks Melvin Benn about being owned by Clear Channel. Benn points out that it's now LiveNation - but doesn't mention the board-level crossover of the companies - and shrugs that "we're all tainted"

Arcade Fire live at Maida Vale from Radcliffe & Maconie's Thursday night show; it starts an hour in and there's no unpleasantness like the camera smashing on last night's Jonathan Ross show

Crowded House acoustic on Danny Baker, crammed in between extra news bulletins about cars not exploding

You, You Tube & The Music: Glastonbury 2007

Amongst the live Glastonbury stuff turning up on YouTube at the moment:

Bloc Party: So Here We Are & Helicopter
Arcade Fire: No Cars Go
Arctic Monkeys: Diamonds Are Forever
The Chemical Brothers: Hey Boy Hey Girl
Maximo Park: Apply Some Pressure
The Coral: Dreaming Of You
The Twang: Wide Awake
Manic Street Preachers: La Tristesse Durera
CSS: Let's Make Love And Listen To Death From Above

BBC World News report
A pan round the site

Glastonbury 2007 in full

Broadsheet round-up:

Alexis Petridis was down the front (or, at least, perched comfortably in the VIP area) for the Arcade Fire and the Guardian:

Variety of end-of-days scenarios suggested in lyrics seem oddly more pertinent when you're listening to them up to your knees in slurry, stood next to a disconcerting man in a jester's hat, sniffing amyl nitrate. In addition, certain lyrics take on a curiously prophetic bent given inclement conditions: "Come out of the rain!" exhorts Butler at one juncture. "You can do it!" Minor mid-set lull blown away by cataclysmic finale, involving mass singalong to Wake Up.

It seems that the BBC had focused quite heavily on the mid-set lull, then.

Eugene Hutz of Gogol Bordello seized the Guardian blog to ruminate on festivals which have lost their soul:

As for festivals we haven't enjoyed playing: there was some horrible thing... I don't need to say which one, but I don't enjoy playing where all I see is fucking Miller Lite commercials in my face and tons of fucking cops.

I don't know whether Glastonbury is a travellers' festival still: that's not what I heard but I'm going to find out for myself after this. I heard that it's a land of rape and murder. Some experts, some reliable sources told me. But of course Glastonbury still has the ability to do change people's minds and alter their consciousness. You've just got to get the right bands and the right people will come, and they'll have the right reaction - liberation, catharsis, grabbing the tits of somebody else's girlfriend. You know - the usual!

The Telegraph has attempted to out-grump the Mail by sending Christopher Howse along to Worthy Farm. He's the "only festival goer with a tie", which means he can expect pete Doherty to seek him out to borrow it later on, then. Christoper hasn't fallen for the "traveller's festival" story any more than Eugene has:

Among the 30,000 cars in the car parks, there are plenty of Audis, Volvos and BMWs. Ten thousand, almost all young, came greenly by train and then chugged the last miles on dirty old buses.

"We're doing a dance degree at Greenwich," says my 20-year-old neighbour, pointing to her fair-haired friend. But now they're spending the weekend working in a vegan cafe, hoping to slip out to see Bjork. Bjork has been here before, she just can't remember.

If for some Glastonbury is joining the social season with Ascot and Henley, its style is still young and grungy. At Henley gentlemen must still wear ties. Here I spent 24 hours without seeing anyone else with one on. Ascot cocktail dresses and feather hats can look vulgar. Here the middle class come in muddy disguise.

Over in the The Times, Pete Paphides looks at what the bill tells us about the modern world:

Winehouse aside, it was a bill that rammed home the point that we are living in a postOasis age, where supersized indie bands trumpet the everyman values that allow their fans to live vicariously through them. Dundee’s bafflingly popular practitioners of indie dirges, The View, seemed to suit the worsening conditions. If only their fans’ chant – “The View are on fire!” – were true.

Blog round up: Parking cars and running figures

Although the state of the field has failed to provide Somme-meets-Armageddon schadenfreude thrills, it's still quite nasty down there. Aworan has a plan, though:

The Heavens opened and it was just mayham. Thankfully, based on experiences of 2005, I have learnt never to over-excert myself, so I decided to stay put on the Jazz World Stage.

I’ve been here since Thursday evening, and with the sun shining and in spite of the little mud, I honestly believed that the harbingers of doom (i.e. weather forecasters and those who didn’t have tickets!) predicting torrential rain and such were over enthusiastic. Boy, was I sorely mistaken. So, here I am, Day 2 into the mudfest that is Glastonbury. I couldn’t blog yesterday because it was really busy, hence me writing one day late. I can’t even put any pictures up just yet.

Melgro gallery is enjoying the festival without the mud, by watching at home:

Highlights round about 1:30 a.m. Arcade Fire - worth the wait. The Fratellis were much better live than they are recorded - skiffle is alive & kicking! Lonnie Donnigon is smiling in his casket!
Slomoh oh wow. Rufus Wainright - good & amazingly, some Amy Winehouse we missed - much better than the end of her set!

Christinanott is slapping photos up as fast as she can, but also revealed one of the many ways around the ticketing regulations:

Ben was supposed to have been included when we bought the tickets, but his pre-registration had not been accepted because his photo was so bad. Instead of fixing it, he left it so when we eventually got the tickets, we couldn't include him.

So back at the mad Sunday when all of the tickets sold out in two hours, we did eventually get through and get coach tickets (an extra £42 each). Despite the transport delays it was still better for the journey.

Ever resourceful, Ben then applied for car parking duties and actually has Friday night shot until Saturday morning. He's not allowed into the site though until after his duties have finished. At least he made it.

Best blog entry so far is Phil Coales, who posts a slew of adjusted diagrams from his physics text book, but labels it:

I'm watching Arctic Monkey's Glastonbury set but not through choice although it's not really that bad

Ivan Pope, meanwhile, asks a fair question: why, when Glasto is a business like any other, does it get such uncritical coverage. He crunches some numbers:

But the big question has to be - what value has it been to the corporate face of Glastonbury, the happy smiling hippy farmer, Michael Eavis? How much money has he and his family taken out of the festival over the years? After all, if he can give away 40% of the company that is worth millions in profit to a commercial organisation, then what happens to the other 60%, which also must be worth millions?

Glastonbury's accounts office insists the festival remains true to its non-corporate ideals and says the festival gives all its profits to charity. Last year, £1.1m was given away to local, national and international charities. [2005 number]

So Mean Fiddler earns millions but the other 60% earns 1.1 million, which is all given away? Somehow this doesn't add up. Remember, profits is something that is entirely controlled by the company that makes them. If there is spare cash, it can go in all sorts of directions before being declared a profit. For example, they could reduce ticket prices, or give away tents or maybe pay huge fees to the farm on which the festival is held. There are hundreds of ways of getting just the profit you want in the way you want it.

So back to my initial complaint. Why does the BBC treat this private commercial festival as if it is a national event of huge significance? And if the festival wants to be treated in this way, it should open up its accounts for public scrutiny and explain where all the money goes.

I'm not sure the implication that Eavis is perhaps less generous with his profits than the popular image would suggest is fair; I suspect the discrepancy lies more in the way the money is split between Glastonbury and LiveNation. But allowing us to look at the books seems to be a good idea.